"It's about states' rights," said the White Citizens' Council back then. "It's about political redistricting," says MAGA today. But Jim Crow is always about racism. Same as it ever was.

Before taking office, Trump pressured Republicans to kill a bipartisan immigration bill. Now, despite GOP majorities, no immigration legislation has been advanced. For the president and his supporters, immigration is not a challenge to compassionately resolve but an opportunity to cruelly exploit.

The relentless efforts to disenfranchise Black citizens – the SAVE Act, the dismantled Voting Rights Act, etc. – expose how terrifying Black freedom remains to white power.

Multiracial democracy is the dream. White supremacist autocracy remains the reality.

After the stillness of winter, it's always such a lift to hear the birdsong return to Jackson Park. Thanks to the ruby-crowned kinglets, white-throated sparrows, yellow-rumped warblers, and all the others who joined me for my walk this morning.

It's an old and predictable tactic: powerful people who distort and vilify nonviolent resistance to distract from their own violent aggression. Don't get distracted. Motivated by love, keep seeking and speaking the truth.

"The authoritative leader...displaces the rule of law and 'common' sense to become the quixotic judge of what is just or unjust, truth or lie, in each moment." - Shoshana Zuboff

To those who value efficiency and power, the work we’ve given ourselves to will typically appear foolish and weak. buttondown.com/david.w.swan...

Happy Earth Day, friends. Don't let anyone tell you to pick between your care for the environment and your commitment to racial justice. www.ivpress.com/plundered

Such a gift to spend the weekend in beautiful Seattle, but I'm glad to be home for a walk through Jackson Park to welcome back migrators like these yellow-rumped and palm warblers.

To paraphrase Abraham Joshua Heschell, a prophet is distinguished by the ability to hold the righteousness of God and the frailties of humanity "in a single thought." Though it rarely ends well for those with this both-and call, our either-or churches and culture desperately need their voices.

"But if inevitabilism is an invention than it isn’t inevitable. Altman’s version of utopia isn’t a foregone conclusion, even if his investors want us to think it is." buttondown.com/david.w.swan...

The old saints used to sing, "I will trust in the Lord... I'm gonna treat everybody right... I'm gonna stay on the battlefield... I'm gonna stay on bended knee... until I die!" God, give our generation this kind of enduring faith.

Seattle, I'm headed your way this weekend and would love to see you at this workshop hosted by Encounter Church. www.encountereastside.org/rrw

"Mrs. Long-Sullivan kept little treasures — like dolls or toy cars — in her backpack to give to kids for birthdays and other special occasions." When they were younger, my sons were the recipients of these little generosities. She will be missed.

“The problem with a vision of a violent Jesus who justifies our warmongering is not that it makes our Savior too powerful; it makes him weak, embarrassingly weak.” buttondown.com/david.w.swan...

A people committed to the singular lordship of Jesus Christ will always provoke the empire's fearful and violent response. www.thedailybeast.com/trump-offici...

A beautiful morning in Jackson Park made even better by the cherry blossoms and the first palm warbler of the season.

Over the years I've landed on a few social media boundaries that have been helpful in keeping these spaces in their proper places: - no SM before breakfast or after dinner - no SM on my phone (IG is off unless I've recently posted) - SM breaks for Advent and Lent

The song sparrows and cardinals were singing enthusiastically this morning.

Studying Revelation 13 for Sunday's sermon: A violent, blasphemous, power-hungry empire animated by Satan and legitimized by deceptive religion. "Let anyone who has an ear listen." (13:9)

Pastor, the hour is late but there is still time to speak up. buttondown.com/david.w.swan...

Heading out for a few days with the amazing A Rocha USA board. A Rocha's mission is to live out God’s calling to care for creation and equip others to do likewise. Learn more here: arocha.us

At this point, people who deny the presidential administration's white supremacist assumptions and aims are either willfully ignorant or quietly supportive. The evidence is simply to overwhelming to deny.

I got to hangout with this little downy woodpecker for a few minutes during this morning's sabbath walk through Jackson Park.

Yesterday during worship I invited our kids to reflect on the racist video posted by the president earlier in the week. I said that the video was racist because it treated a group of people as less-than human than other people. 1/

What's everybody bringing to the Super Bowl party? I'm gonna try my hand at this... cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1025...

Reminds me of the Minneapolis pastor who told me about the guy in his church who has started a door-replacement ministry for all the doors ICE agents have kicked in.

"To describe the president as a racist is to say something almost too obvious." buttondown.com/david.w.swan...

"God is not dead neither doth the ruler of the universe slumber and sleep. As a Nation sows so shall it reap. Men do not gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles. To sow the wind is to reap the whirlwind." - Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (1902)

Believing that preaching the gospel meant staying silent about politics, a generation of pastors – precisely when churches are desperate for moral clarity – find themselves tongue-tied as fascism stares us in the face. Holy Spirit, open our mouths.

Believing that preaching the gospel meant staying silent about politics, a generation of pastors – precisely when churches are desperate for moral clarity – find themselves tongue-tied as fascism stares us in the face. Holy Spirit, open our mouths.

Ending the day with a "know your rights" webinar. I'm grateful for Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and other local orgs who train Chicago residents to be good neighbors. Find trainings here: www.icirr.org/fsn

The widest possible difference... still!

From the conclusion of today's sermon from Revelation 6 and 7, "Sheltered by God."

Good morning preachers! What's your sermon today? I'm coming from Revelation 6-7, "God’s protection outlasts the world’s persecution."

In today's newsletter, with help from the "kneel-ins" at southern churches in the 1960s, I'm thinking about that anti-ICE church protest in St. Paul. buttondown.com/david.w.swan...

Al Hsu edited my most recent book with @ivpress.bsky.social and I'll forever be grateful for his careful reading and wise direction. It was good to see Al and others from the IVP team this week at my denomination's conference. You can find my books with IVP here: www.ivpress.com/david-w-swan...

An authoritarian regime explains the violence it inflicts on its people with propaganda aimed at making those same people just enough less human so as to justify their destruction.

An authoritarian regime explains the violence it inflicts on its people with propaganda aimed at making those same people just enough less human so as to justify their destruction.

From Jim Crow to MAGA, state-sanctioned terror is always justified by state-sponsored propaganda.

If you are waiting for the white church to betray the power-hungry status quo which birthed it and to which it remains bound, you’re going to be waiting for a very, very long time.

If you are waiting for the white church to betray the power-hungry status quo which birthed it and to which it remains bound, you’re going to be waiting for a very, very long time.

I was glad to join these friends for a conversation about responding in the non-violent way of Jesus to our government's campaigns of hate and terror. gravitycommons.com/podcast/davi...

To defend the societal domination in which it was birthed and to which it remains bound, white churches have always been quick to abandon moral obligations for legal technicalities. It'd be foolish to expect anything different today.

Chicago, in case you're wondering, yes, it's quite cold today.

Hey preachers, what's the passage and big idea for your sermon tomorrow? We're back in our series from Revelation, chapter four: "Worship translates reality."

The federal government’s mass deportation campaign is aimed at strengthening white supremacy through campaigns of ethnic cleansing. It's awful to say, but how else can we honestly describe what's playing out before our eyes?

"I’m angry that the cross of Jesus Christ has been co-opted by those who would return us to the era of the lynching tree." My lament from Sunday's sermon. Podcast here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...

From the conclusion of today's sermon from 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4, "Growing in Faith."